Every castle needs a throne—and I’m not talking about one with plumbing.
I don’t have a “Man Cave” per se, but I do have a big, comfy Daddy chair. It’s green, just so you know. I didn’t go looking for a big, green chair; I just went looking for a place to relax. Continue reading
I’m not.
Handy, that is.
I’m not the kind of man one calls when one needs help fixing or building. You will never hear it said, “Oh, call Michael. He can help. That guy can fix anything!”
It’s not that I don’t try. I try.
It’s not that I’m inept. I’m ept. Just not ept enough. Continue reading
The buck stops here.
I didn’t make that up, just so you know. When I was a kid, I figured that phrase had to do with making money. I thought, “Woohoo! That’s right—let the buck stop right here, Baby! In fact, make it lots and lots of bucks!”
I have since learned that the phrase has an entirely different—and less pleasant—meaning. Continue reading
O.K., this time there will be no rabbit trails. In my last post, I started to talk about our family’s worship experience, and I got distracted by the issue of sleep.
I love sleep.
Anyway, it is a bit ironic that I got distracted when I was talking about worship. You see, my family always gets distracted when we attempt to worship. Continue reading
What does my family have against sleep, anyway?
One of the many great things about homeschooling is that there is some flexibility in your schedule. The kids don’t have to get dragged out of bed at 0-Dark-Thirty to make it to school on time, so it’s OK to stay up a little later on occasion, and simply sleep in a bit. This is a tremendous blessing for everyone in the house except the guy who does have to get out of bed at 0-Dark-Thirty to get to work on time. Continue reading
She weighed 3lbs. 13ozs. Do you know how small that is? I could hold her whole body in the palm of my hand; she held my whole heart in the palm of hers. Continue reading
My dog is defective.
Harsh? Yes.
True? Unfortunately, also yes.
It isn’t entirely her fault; some of it is a gene thing. Still, some of it is pure choice.
O.K., from the beginning… Continue reading
It’s birthday season, and that is always a dangerous time for me. Not only is there the fire hazard, there is the potential for the Crisis to rear its ugly, balding head. You know exactly what I mean. Men look at each birthday as a yardstick, measuring where we are in life against where our friends are, where our colleagues are, or—most dangerous of all—where we thought we would be by now. Continue reading
I lead a double life.
Not that kind of double life. A boring kind. I’m not a superhero, not a spy. The FBI did surveil me once, but it turned out I wasn’t really the one they were interested in; they were after some other guy with my name. That guy, wherever he is, appears to be having quite a time. Continue reading
“What is a capital letter?”
“Does the United States have a king?”
“What city is Boston University in?”
The questions in this post are real. They were asked of me, in my classroom. The eleven to fourteen-year-olds who posed them are real children. Many of those children are now grown, and walk among us as adults, leaders, parents.
I teach middle school. You’re welcome. Continue reading